Sorry for not updating in a while. I had this major writer's block and I just managed to get out of it yesterday when I thought of this new story idea (on my Tumblr), but this chapter is still... well, crap.

IIII Winter Wolf IIII- Thanks.

ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- Yup! BotL wasn't my favorite book in the series, but hopefully it doesn't reflect too much in my writing?

Guest- Thanks!

Reynico0503 (Guest)- Thanks a lot! ^^

A regular demigod- Aw, thanks.

guest- Yeah, sorry for not updating. It's just that I had a writer's block (as stated above) and my school work (also the reviews didn't add up, but I usually don't follow that anyway). I think the next update will be a bit faster.

And boom. Another filler. Plus (probably) OOC characters and information that doesn't make sense. Yeah. XP

I'm not expecting much for this chapter, so maybe 96 reviews?

We jogged through the next tunnel, not even knowing what we were going to meet. We didn't talk.

"So what's up with you and Rachel?" I asked. "I mean, you guys used to be best buds."

Her expression darkened and I wished that I could sew my mouth shut. "Nothing," she said. "You must be imagining it."

I was pretty sure that wasn't the case, but I didn't push her.

"Do you know what made Chris go all mad?" I asked again to break the silence.

She shook her head. "He was mumbling about string."

"String," I said.

"Yeah, string," Annabeth said. "Don't ask me about it, okay?"

I stayed silent. Annabeth chose a few random tunnels when the roads forked off.

Finally Annabeth sighed. "I'm sorry Percy. I'm just… stressed."

I turned around to look at her face. "Where exactly did you go?"

She flinched. "Somewhere."

I couldn't stand it anymore. "Annabeth, you're cutting off our conversations."

"I'll tell you later," she said.

We took a short awkward break and continued on. The texture of the tunnels kept changing to bricks and steel and other materials that I couldn't name.

When we turned left, the walls changed again to a school-like hallway. I really hoped there weren't any ghosts here like before.

There was one classroom door however with some scratch marks on the handle. I put my hand on the handle when Annabeth said, "Wait."

Too late. I opened the door and got hit by a huge blast of wind. My hair flew back and my face felt like it was peeling off.

"Go away!" a familiar voice yelled, and I blocked my face with my arm instinctively as another blast of air came out. Later I found out that it was a group of ghosts.

"Nico," I said. "Stop, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Liar! You killed my sister!"

"I didn't! I tried to stop her, I really did!" I said, the guilt forming freshly in my gut. "Nico, please listen to me."

The wind stopped and Nico drew a black sword that I hadn't noticed before. I wondered where he got that. I mean, you don't find armories in the middle of nowhere with short black swords.

"Nico, stop," Annabeth said. "Calm down and we can talk it out. We won't hurt you, I swear."

He took a deep breath. "Fine."

My jaw dropped as I turned to Annabeth. She just smirked at me.

"So what do we need to talk out?" I asked as we sat in a circle around a small pit.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to him. I heard that the school gave you an injection?"

Nico nodded stiffly. "That's why I'm able to do this." He motioned to the pit and the air.

"You can summon ghosts and create pits?" I said.

"I can control the earth… a little," he mumbled. "And shadows."

The shadows around the classroom got darker, or maybe I was just imagining it.

"I think you can control the dead," Annabeth mused. "Percy told me you've been having dreams?"

"Yeah," he flinched. "Why are you so interested?"

"No side-effects whatsoever?" Annabeth pressed. "I mean, other than the dreams?"

He shook his head.

"Maybe they tested it out on someone," I said. "I doubt it would've worked hundred percent in one try."

"Maybe," she agreed. "But this is Daedalus we're talking about."

"Daedalus?" Nico said, jerking up. "He made this?"

I nodded. "I got injected too, but on purpose."

Nico clenched his fists. "I'm going to kill that guy."

Now, that might not sound threatening, but the way Nico said it made it seem like he was about to march over there and take his guts out one by one. Shadows started to creep toward him and a strange hum filled the room.

"Whoa dude. You have to chill," I said.

"He betrayed Olympus," he said. "He gave Othrys all their secrets."

"Nico, what are you talking about?"

Annabeth met my eye, and I knew we were thinking the same thing—Nico was injected with more than one thing. Something that gave him these thoughts.

"They tested out all those injections on the Olympians," he snapped. "Even my father."

"I thought you didn't know who your father was," I said.

"My father is Hades," he said. He took a deep breath. "Othrys chose certain people and forced them to work in their own respective areas after giving them the injections. They used them as experiments. It's no coincidence that Hades has his own branch of mining, funeral organizations, and banks and how Poseidon has his own branch of his whole ocean-related things."

Annabeth sucked in a breath. "I get it now! Olympus and Othrys—they're basing everything off of Greek mythology! That's how we solve this maze!"

"Can someone please elaborate?" I sighed annoyed about the big jump from Greek mythology to the maze.

"Okay," she said, and I knew I was going to regret my request. "So Othrys, I have no idea how they chose the people for injections, but they're all named after Greek deities, you see? Hades, the god of the dead and riches, Poseidon, the god of the sea, Zeus, the god of the skies and all that. And Othrys has their own staff named after Titans like Atlas."

"Oh yeah. Atlas Atlas," I nodded. "Go on."

She rolled her eyes. "All the monsters we've faced are based on Greek monsters too! Like the hellhound. Also the school, they're not really for criminals. They're for people like us."

"What do you mean, us?" I asked.

"Children of the Olympians," Nico muttered.

Annabeth nodded. "Percy, you're the son of Poseidon, as for me, I'm the daughter of Athena. For Nico, he's the son of Hades, and I'm pretty sure Bianca was too. But I don't know why they're trying to keep us here."

"They want to use us as weapons against our parents," Nico said.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"I just do."

She sighed. "So anyway, back to my point. The school is weeding out the others and just letting them go or experimenting on them—like Nancy and Matt for instance."

"What did they do?" I asked.

"They turned Nancy into an empousa," she said. "And they turned Matt into a Laistrygonian. I saw it. So again, back to my original point. And since you two are so distracted, I'll just cut to the chase. So you know the Labyrinth from Greek mythology right?"

We nodded.

"So I'm assuming you guys know the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur," Annabeth said. "Theseus used Ariadne's string to guide himself to the Minotaur. Ariadne's string can guide you wherever you need to go."

"That's great and all, but what are we going to do with that information?" Nico said.

Annabeth looked at me, waiting for me to get the point.

"Chris," I said. "He was mumbling about string."

"It's not a coincidence," Annabeth said. "I'm certain of it. This whole mess is based on Greek mythology."

"But Daedalus said that Rachel would help us," I protested.

"Yes, but she isn't here," Annabeth said. "If you still don't believe me about Ariadne's string, here's something that might convince you."

We looked at her expectantly.

"The mental hospital I sent Chris to," she said smugly. "The nurse who took him in was named Ariadne."

We stayed silent letting the information sink in.

"So let's assume this Ariadne has the string," Nico said. "Do you even know where the hospital is?"

"Yup,"Annabeth said. "Arizona. So what are we waiting for? Let's go."

I glanced at Nico as we stood up. "Nico, you can come with us."

I was hoping he would since he seemed more at ease with our talk though I didn't get everything out of him.

"Why should I?" he said.

"Nico, please," Annabeth said.

"Fine," he said after a minute or two.

My jaw dropped again as Annabeth smirked and stuck her tongue out at me.

Annabeth started leading us out the tunnel and broke out into a run.

"Why are we running all of a sudden?" I asked.

"I just realized," she murmured. "I'm so stupid."

"That doesn't make me feel good, coming from you," I coughed.

"Luke's after the string too. We have to hurry."

"But how will we know if we're in Arizona?" Nico piped up, and we stayed silent.

"First things first," I said. "How do you know he's after the string?"

"I found Chris," she reminded me. "A few number of students disappeared after that little fiasco along with Luke. They're probably working with him or Othrys. So that goes back to Chris who was pretty good friends with Luke, and I found him mumbling about string."

I noticed the way her voice softened when she said Luke as if she still had feelings for that guy. It made me want to throw up.

"And for our Arizona problem?" I asked.

"We can try all the exits we see and hopefully one of them will lead to Arizona," Nico said.

"And the hospital was at a desert. It might get a bit hotter down here as we get close," Annabeth reasoned.

She chose a tunnel made of red dirt leaving us slightly behind.

"So what did they give you?" I asked. "The injection, I mean."

"They gave me two," Nico panted, struggling to keep up.

"Did anything else happen after that?"

"My memories are becoming weaker," he said. "I can't remember my past, and I'm getting these random memories that aren't even mine."

"Like the ones you told us earlier," I said. "Tell me exactly what happened when you got the shots."

He seemed hesitant at first but eventually told me all he knew.

"They gave me the second one in a rush," he recalled. "A different person did it and accidentally injected in the wrong place."

I tried to make sense of that in my head as we tried the exits and popping out at the wrong places at the wrong time. We almost got ran over by a car once and another time I caused a flood in some horse stables with my new water powers.

"It's good," Annabeth said. "We're getting closer. I think."

Nico breathed heavily as we ran.

"Nico, you okay? We can stop if you're tired," I said.

He shook his head. "Don't let me hold you back."

He said it in a strange way as if he was talking about something else too.

After about what seemed like an hour of traveling, Annabeth stopped at a dead end.

"It's a dead end," I said.

Annabeth shook her head. "It's a boulder. It can be an exit. Nico, can you break it?"

He shrugged and clapped his hands. The sound echoed through the tunnel and the boulder cracked and crumbled into dust.

"Nice," I grinned. I turned to Annabeth. "Is this the right place?"

She walked out and looked around the desert. "Yeah. It's near here."

She motioned us to come out and the wind blew in my face carrying sand with it. It was nighttime, maybe around six or seven.

"It's a few blocks away that way," she said pointing to the right. "But it's past dinnertime. Do any of you have money or food?"

I shook my head. "Rachel brought our supplies."

Nico grunted. "I just exited the Labyrinth when I had to get food or water."

Annabeth sighed and pulled out a wallet. "I only have twenty bucks, so nothing too expensive. Any ideas?"

"There's a McDonalds," Nico said brightly.

"All in favor?" I asked, and Annabeth shrugged.

"Sure," she said and we went in.

It must have looked strange; three dirty teens walking into a fast food restaurant at night, but no one questioned us. Nico ordered a Happy Meal and I ordered a double cheeseburger. Annabeth ordered some fries for all of us and a cheeseburger for herself. She quickly paid and went to go save us a table.

"I have a few bucks left," she said. "I think we should save it for something crucial like water or something."

"Sure," I said as a yawn escaped my mouth.

Our order came out and Annabeth went to go get it for us.

"Eat quickly," she said. "I don't know when the hospital closes and I don't want to wait until tomorrow morning."

She sent us death glares that made us choke on our food. We inhaled our food, and I couldn't even tell what I ate. We finished our dinner in less than three minutes and went back outside. Annabeth led us to the hospital.

"I don't know if it'll be safe," she said. "I mean, after everything we've been through, I won't be surprised if there's crazy psychos in there."

She stopped at a huge white building that looked so out of place in the desert. There was no speck of dirt on it with was ironic.

"Nico, maybe you should stay out here," I said. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'm not a kid Percy," Nico said. "I can go too."

"How about you keep watch for us?" Annabeth suggested. "If something happens or someone shady comes in, alert us with like a ghost or something."

I gave Annabeth a quick thanks with my eyes. I didn't want Nico hurt or possibly even dead because of me. I was probably being paranoid, but I couldn't help it.

He sighed. He probably knew there was no winning Annabeth. "Have fun."

I grinned. "Thanks."

We went inside the brightly lit lobby and a nurse greeted us.

"Welcome!" she smiled. "Welcome to our mental institute. I'm Ariadne, pleased to meet you."